


Don't hurt the ones I love.

by Celticas



Series: Trope Bingo [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angel!Phil, Guardian Angel, Happy Ending, M/M, no wings, trope bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 05:47:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21131657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celticas/pseuds/Celticas
Summary: Like most children of a certain age, Clint Barton had an imaginary friend. Unlike most people, he didn’t grow out of it.





	Don't hurt the ones I love.

Like most children of a certain age, Clint Barton had an imaginary friend. Unlike most people, he didn’t grow out of it. Milly Barton had thought it was adorable that her little boy’s imaginary friend had such a proper name Phillip J. Coulson, and beware if you forgot the J or tried to shorten it to Phil. Barney thought it was weird, but really he thought everything about his little brother was weird. The one time Phillip was mentioned to Alan Barton, he was determined to beat that shit out of his son! The first, and second, and fifth foster families didn’t care, there were getting their money out of the Barton Boys and that was it as far as they were concerned. The sixth foster family though it was weird that a ten year old still had an imaginary friend. At the seventh, and last, he got beaten for it, again.

That was the last time he mentioned the man in a fitted suit that dropped in to hang out sometimes. On lonely nights he would whisper his secrets to the sentinel watching over him at the foot of his bed, or patch of dirt. Cllint knew Phillip didn’t protect him from the monsters in the physical world, just those in the shadows that nipped at the boy’s, and then the man's heels. 

Other people had guardians, not everyone, and Clint couldn’t really see them, not the way he saw Phillip as a flesh and blood person, but sometimes a flicker transparent fingers was in the corner of his eye.

He stopped flinching at 13. Growing used to seeing more than anyone else.

For a while he thought Phillip had left, the quiet happy days in the circus were followed by lonely but safe nights. The quiet snore of his brother the only sound in their ragged trailer. It was a double edged sword, he missed his friend but he was safe and warm and had enough to eat.

A flash of fine wool signalled his guardians return as he lay bleeding in the dirt, Trickshot lining up another kick to the teenager’s stomach. Phillip didn’t get between them, but he stood guard to stop the snarling shadows from creeping any closer. Later, when Trick had wandered off, the expression on Phillip’s face would have been heartbreaking if Clint’s heart wasn’t already shattered.

Life only got worse. Some part of Clint’s skin always mottled with half-faded bruises. The shadows a place he couldn’t walk anymore without bands of darkness trying to keep him there.

Phillip didn’t leave his side for years. Constant sad eyes as he killed for money. As his hands were washed in blood. The literal angel on his shoulder reminding him he could be good. Backed into a corner, bleeding from a gunshot wound in the leg he didn’t remember getting, he finally listened. He was still killing people, but they were bad people. People who were stalked by the shadows.

Phillip’s eyes lost the sadness that lurked in their amethyst depths.

Curled up in his bunk at SHIELD they quietly talking about life and the places they had been. Phillip always careful only to mention places they had been together. But Clint knew. He knew he wasn’t the only person Phillip guarded.

It was stupid, but he couldn’t help himself. He fell for his imaginary friend. The person who had stood by him through everything, who had been there at his best and his worst and still been there. It was never going to go anywhere, and he did his best to move on. Relationships, one night stands, and a six month period where he and Tasha had a furious afraid, as likely to fight as to fuck. Eventually, they settled into a deep friendship. Nothing worked on the other problem though. It sat as a warmth in the bottom of his belly, always there but mostly ignorable. 

A bullet whizzed past Clint’s head, forcing him to duck back behind cover. This so wasn’t the time to be thinking about the currently absent Phillip. He needed to get his head in the game or he wasn’t going to have one much longer.

Popping up, he fired half his clip. Each bullet found the mark. Bad guys in black dropping like flies. They weren’t dropping fast enough. The pin-point punch of a bullet ripping through his chest stole his breath. Forcing him back a step, a second sent him to his knees.

Time slowed.

He could feel the blood bubbling up between his lips, at least one lung torn.The rest of his team were yelling, the last thug falling to their gunfire. Silence fell.

The pale face, and charcoal wool of Phillip appeared in front of him. “Clint?” His hand reached out, cradling Clint’s cheek in cool flesh.

“Wha’? Phil…?” He coughed, blood speckling them both.

“Oh god, Clint.” Phil dropped to his knees, his free arm went under Clint’s shoulders, pulling slightly off the ground and in tight against Phil’s chest. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop it this time.” He rambled, voice cracked and broken, into Clint’s hair.

“Get away from him?” Tasha’s voice broke through the ramble.

Painfully, Clint turned his head. She had a gun pointed right at him. No, not him. At  _ Phillip _ . That wasn’t right.

“Tasha. OK.” Talking stole the last of Clint’s breath and energy. He knew this was the end, and it was ok. Phillip was there, he would see him safe, just like he always did. “Lov’yo.” He was speaking to both of them.

Phillip knew that. “We love you to.” He soothed a hand through the sweat and blood darkened hair. Comforting Clint in his last seconds.

Eyes that had always seen too much slid closed for the last time.

New eyes opened.

“Hi.”

“Hello.” Phillip smiled down at the man in his arms. He lowered one of them to the ground.

Standing he offered a hand to help Clint to his feet.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm over on [Tumblr](https://quartzcelticas.tumblr.com/). So come over and say 'hi'.


End file.
